GRi Press Review Ghana 25 – 01 – 2001
Obed urges colleagues to return vehicles
Ashanti DCEs to account for Assemblies’ property
NDC stalls vetting of Kufuor’s men
NDC’s Legacy ‘Omuo Wionn’
New prices for looted cars
TFCC sold for nothing?
Sale of cars to Ministers, Officials – Jake clears the air
‘No panic increase in price of petroleum products’
Mass defection to NPP
Greenstreet lacks constitutional and legal backing
Agbodo sabotaged investments
Top NDC man took bribe
Akwasi Agyemang blows ¢900M
Torture victims of Rawlings era cry for justice
Churcher leads thugs to vandalise property
Obed urges colleagues to return vehicles
The former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Dr Obed Asamoah, said yesterday that public reaction to the purchase of state vehicles by ex-government officials was negatively affecting the image of the NDC.
He, therefore, suggested that the beneficiaries should return the cars to forestall a further denting of the party’s image,.
“It would help the image of the party if they all returned the cars.” The Ghanaian Times quoted Dr Asamoah as noting in an interview with Joy FM in Accra.
He, however maintained that his suggestion was purely due to the party’s declining image and not because the purchase of the ears were wrong in the first place.
“By the practice that exists, the officials were entitled to purchase the cars,” he stressed.
Asked if he benefited from the arrangement, Dr Asamoah said he declined the offer because, he felt he did not need the car.
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Ashanti DCEs to account for Assemblies’ property
The Ashanti Regional Co-ordinating Council (ARCC) has concluded arrangements with the out-going Metropolitan and District Chief Executives to render this week, comprehensive accounts of all property of their assemblies currently in their care.
Inventory of the assemblies’ property are to be jointly taken by the out-going Metropolitan and District Chief Executives, Co-ordinating Directors and other officials of the Assemblies.
Mr Joe Issachar, Ashanti Regional Co-ordinating Director, disclosing this to The Times in Kumasi yesterday, explained that the measure was primarily designed to ensure that property of the Assemblies did not fall into wrong hands.
Mr Issachar said that the move was also meant to avoid a possible conflict between out-going District Chief Executives and their co-ordinating Directors over the handing over of the property of assemblies citing as an example, the current misunderstanding over the handing over of the property of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly by Nana Akwasi Agyeman, former Metropolitan Chief Executive.
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NDC stalls vetting of Kufuor’s men
The Independent reports that the rescheduled appearance before the Appointment Committee of the first batch of presidential nominees for ministerial positions on Friday has been thrown into jeopardy by the minority group in Parliament.
Led by the minority leader Honourable A.S.K. Bagbin the group contended that the appearance of the nominees on Friday clashes with an induction seminar organized by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, which is supposed to run from Friday to Sunday. They therefore proposed that the nominees appear before the committee on Monday.
Responding to the argument, the Majority Leader, honourable J.H. Mensah, pointed out that the matter needs to be treated as a matter of urgency to allow government business to proceed.
This was hotly contested by the minority who accused the nominees of having started work as ministers, despite the fact that they have not yet been vetted. Citing examples, they referred to Mr Jake Obetsebi Lamptey and Hackman Owusu Agyeman’s directive that former government appointees surrender their diplomatic passports to the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
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NDC’s Legacy ‘Omuo Wionn’
Veteran Mr J.H. Mensah has painted a more gloomy picture of the national economy describing the mess of the economy bequeathed by the NDC government as “the worst in the country’s history” says another story in the Independent.
Never in his 50 years working life as an economist has he found such a horrible mess after going through some of the financial records, of that government, he is repoted as saying.
The Minister of Government Business designate, addressing a victory rally of the Sekondi constituency branch of the NPP on Saturday January 20, in Fante, said the situation is simply bad; “Omuo Wionn, Omuo”.
The socio-economic problems created by the NDC need time, tolerance and painstaking efforts to solve them, the Majority Leader in Parliament said, adding that
the NPP government will therefore not allow itself to be stampeded to rush to take decisions or actions which could not help the country out from its problems.
Mr Mensah therefore appealed to Ghanaians to exercise patience because the first objective now in progress is the appointment of a competent team of ministers and officers who can deliver the goods.
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New prices for looted cars
It has now been established that the official valuer of the controversial “well done” ex-gratia cars that former Ministers and political appointees allocated to themselves, quoted prices far in excess of the concessionary pittance paid by them, reports The Evening News.
Mr F.K. Allotey, the small-statured valuer in his professional judgement fixed the values of most of the over 200 vehicles between ø20 million and ø50 million.
But, in a typical executive “Rambo” style interference, Nana Ato Dadzie, the former Chief of Staff, overruled Mr Allotey’s decisions and called for more reasonable concessionary prices, saying no car should be sold beyond ø9 million.
The rest of the story is not yet history, as members of the public continue to condemn the ridiculously low prices paid by the former government officials and political functionaries.
Following the public outcry over the vehicles, which range from Russian made Niva through VW Passat to Mercedez Benz, used by the officials while in office, the vehicles are now being re-valued properly.
Consequently, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, former Minister of Employment and Social Welfar, who paid ø8 million for his 1999 model VW Passat would likely pay ø30 million for it by making up the difference or in default have his initial amount refunded to him in return for the car.
So would Dr. Christine Amoako Nuamah, Mike Hamah, Nana Ato Dadzie, Nii Okaija Adamafio, Samuel Nuamah Donkor, J.K. Bebaako Mensah, Edward Salia and Martin Amidu, all of whom took away their VW Passat cars.
This new development, according to Mr Allotey, is based on discussions between his outfit, the office of the Chief of Staff at the Castle and the local agents of the vehicles, upon which a new valuation list has been compiled.
Investigations revealed that vehicle like Mitsubishi Gallant 1999 model which was sold for ø7.5 million to Ministers like Dr Frank Abu, Dr Ntomo Atakora, Col Kaku Korsah, Mr George Mfojo, Mr E.T. Mensah and Lt-Col E.L. Lawson has now been valued at ø22 million.
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TFCC sold for nothing?
The divestiture of the Tema Food Complex Corporation (TFCC) under the supervision of the Divestiture Implementation Committee has been questioned by some present staff of the new company and others currently on retirement, says the Evening News.
According to Mr Ashiabor Mensah, a former worker of the TFCC, the Corporation, now Ghana Agro-Food Company (GAFCO) was divested in 1994 to Industric Bai Nord AG (BN) of Switzerland at 13.5 million dollars alongside two others who offered 14 million and 15 million dollars each for the complex which comprised a Flour Mill, Feed Mill, Oil Mill, Fish Cannery, Fish smoking and Fish Meal Plants and a Cold Store.
For some reasons, the Flour Mill alone (out of the seven factories) was rehabilitated at over 10 million dollars added to the other factories and given out on credit for 13.5 million dollars.
Sources within the company say that out of the 13.5 million dollars only 3.5 million dollars has since 1994 been paid by IBN leaving a whopping US$10.0 million outstanding.
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Sale of cars to Ministers, Officials – Jake clears the air
The Chief of Staff, Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, is reported by the Daily Graphic as saying that the concessionary prices at which saloon cars were offered to former ministers were not agreed to by the transitional teams.
He has therefore, denied perceptions that he agreed on the prices and later reneged.
Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey in a letter to Nana Ato Dadzie, the former Chief of Staff, said in view of attacks on his personality making it seem that he has acted in bad faith, he has decided to go public so that there can be no doubt in anyone’s mind about his motives.
He said his understanding of the position of the Joint Transitional Team was that they wanted to agree on precedents that would last through time and which are objective and based on principle, not on personalities.
He said on the matter of the cars, there were numerous previous examples of senior level public officers being offered “concessionary” benefits on their leaving office.
“I understand that ‘concessionary’ value can be offered at the discretion of the head of department, I am uncomfortable with this. “Discretion” is very subjective and, therefore, is not a dispensable precedent to create,” he noted.
He, therefore, suggested that “we use the government valuer’s formula, where original value is the cedis paid at the time of purchase”.
Mr F. Allotey, the government valuer, he said, had stated that the values at which the cars were sold were dictated by the former Chief of Staff.
Meanwhile, in a letter sent to the new Chief of Staff, Nana Dadzie reminded Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey that the two of them were mandated by their sides to discuss and review the list of vehicles given to former ministers and appointees and agree to a common mode of determining valuation, among others.
He also reminded Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey of the “rather one-sided, premature publication of the list without the agreed prior review” and expressed regret that no effort was being to revoke or stop the publication of the misleading list.
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‘No panic increase in price of petroleum products’
The Graphic also carries another front-page story, which says the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has cautioned the government of the New Patriotic Party against any panic increase in petroleum prices.
According to the party, within the last month, the anticipated decline in world market price has finally occurred and now hovers around $24 per barrel.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra on Wednesday, Mr Simon Abingya, the party’s spokesman on Mines and Energy said the build-up losses at Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) is expected to reduce.
“Should prices fall further below $24 per barrel, TOR would be expected to reap the benefits of the surpluses under the NDC import parity policy”, Mr Abingya said.
He recalled that in 1997, a new pricing policy for some petroleum products was evolved by the NDC government to de-politicise the fixing of prices for petroleum products, which had hitherto been determined by parliament.
This, he said, was to ensure that prices would be adjusted in response to the world price of crude oil and the exchange rate.
He explained that once the policy was in place and the price of crude oil went up or down, price of petroleum products were correspondingly adjusted, adding that prices were reduced twice in 1998.
He said the pricing of petroleum products was such as to make TOR recover full cost of importation of finished products and refining of crude oil.
According to him, the policy of full-cost recovery and import-parity-pricing operated satisfactorily until March last year when the “unusually steep increase in world crude oil prices made it difficult to continue with the policy.”
In recognition of this, the NDC government decided to review the policy and suspended any further upward price adjustments in order to alleviate the potentially debilitating effect of further fuel price increase on the cost of domestic life and industry.
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Mass defection to NPP
The Guide says less than one month after the general elections the real support base of the defeated NDC has started collapsing.
It said investigations revealed that discontented NDC faithfuls and supporters were defecting en bloc to the victorious NPP, citing deceit and neglect as the two main reasons for abandoning the NDC.
One such mass defection has been in the densely populated Ablekuma South Constituency, where the NPP’s Theresa Tagoe is the MP.
She confirmed to the Guide of the defection of 2000 NDC supporters who expressed regrets following the party.
The MP said long before the elections some NDC activists confided in her that they were not happy with the developments in the party and secretly worked for her during the elections.
She said also that presently many of the fishermen around Chorkor and other fishing communities in her constituency who were staunch NDC supporters have opted for the NPP, claiming they were disappointed at the high cost of outboard motors, canoes and fishing nets under the previous administration.
Ms Tagoe however acknowledged that the real problem is how the NPP government will be meeting the aspirations of all these frustrated and disappointed NDC faithfuls who continue to defect in their numbers to the NPP.
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Greenstreet lacks constitutional and legal backing
The leader of the United Ghana Movement (UGM), Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby said notwithstanding the recommendation of the Greenstreet Report, there appears to be no legal basis for the institution of the End of Service Benefits to retiring public officials, with the singular exception of former Presidents, reports The Crusading Guide.
Dr Wereko-Brobby has therefore called for an immediate suspension of all actions on the payment of the End of Service benefit.
“In particular the President should order the return of all public vehicles which have been sold to and re-registered in the names of former Ministers and senior public officials”, he said in a signed statement dated January 22, 2001.
The UGM leader further argued that despite the fact that the Greenstreet Report was long in gestation and went through not less than two reviews, its recommendations were never laid before Parliament for debate, and as a result, lacks the full constitutional legal backing.
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Agbodo sabotaged investments
The Chronicle says that far from the ‘low investor interest” excuse by the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC) as the reason for failure to offload shares of the Ghana Sugar Estates, its investigations show that the antics of the Executive Secretary, Mr Emmanuel Agbodo, coupled with the connections of a sugar importing company sabotaged the divestiture.
It said as many as ten foreign investors showed interest in both the Asutsuare and Komenda sugar factories, but they were shouldered and frustrated by Agbodo until they packed bag and baggage and left the country, earning Ghana the rank and description of an “Investor Unfriendly Environment”.
One such company, F.C. Schaffer, a US Sugar International Technologist group, with over 30 years of experience in building, rehabilitating and regenerating defunct sugar factories, chased the rehabilitation of the Astuare factory for eight years, until their interest waned due to frustrations from the DIC.
When Mr Agbodo frustrated them to the limit of their tolerance they abandoned their dream and left behind a note for the ex-Vice President, Prof. Atta Mills saying, “Indeed, we have spent eight years chasing Asutuare Factory. Approximately $600,000 have been spent on travel, lodging etc over the years with no returns. No business can sustain such long term business development expenses with no returns”.
The Chronicle says not unexpectedly, the former Vice President not only watched unconcerned and never responded to its written inquires, confirming perceptions of him as a toothless mongrel.
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Top NDC man took bribe
In another capture the paper reports that the Ghana Airways was led the dodgy path to aviation insurance by the ebullient holier-than-thou National Insurance Commissioner, Mr Appiah Ampofo who fought running battles with private insurance companies over the years and set benchmarks that he twitched to suit his own agenda.
According to the paper, reports emerging from England now establish that Mr Ampofo, a favourite Castle official engineered a plan to get Ghana Airways to drop their aviation insurance providers over the years, and guided the lucrative business to a competitor in Europe.
Ampofo is also the official who took the Airways into a bad mortgage financing deal that has now jeopardised their London office property on Princess street, sweeping aside a more structured advantageous offer put together by Chronicle’s publisher Mr Coomson in 1990 while operating as a financial consultant in England.
Coomson confirmed that he met Appiah Ampofo over the transaction at the time but was left out even though he put forward a better long-term corporate loan “through Equator Bank of Canadian International Bank of Commerce, one of those big players with good interest rates and few redemptive clauses.
On this particular deal a broker from the company, Mr Edward Grant Whytock of insurance firm Nicholson Leslie (now Aon Group), paid Ampofo, the equivalent of ¢18.5 million a month over the last three years ($96,500), for consummating the private arrangement he had tied up with the NDC big wig way.
The business, which was previously handled by another major international insurance company was pulled away under circumstances that left the company Marsh and Mclelland completely bewildered, the paper said.
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Akwasi Agyemang blows ¢900M
The staff members of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, are angrily calling for a thorough investigations into the financial operations of the outfit, following the alleged shocking discovery of ¢900 million scandal at the outfit, reports The Ghanaian Voice
According to KMA insiders who had a chat with the paper’s team, the alleged ¢900 million scandal at KMA was orchestrated by the former KMA “bully” Chief Executive, Nana Akwasi Agyeman.
The squandered amount was said to have been proceeds from levies, and partly the Assembly’s Common Fund.
Insiders said, preliminary audit report has it that various sums of monies from the KMA’s banking accounts at the collapsed Bank for Housing and Construction at the Harper Road were said to have been siphoned to an unknown place before the bank collapsed.
Among other financial discrepancies were official demands of funds by Nana Akwasi Agyeman from the treasury Department of the KMA. It was further alleged that, millions of cedis accrued from toilets proceeds from the 14 electoral areas in the metropolis did not reflect in KMA books suggesting that someone had diverted it.
Within January and February 1999 alone, he had allegedly collected an amount of ¢200 million from the treasury Department which neither reflected in KMA books nor was the mission of the collections explained anywhere.
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Torture victims of Rawlings era cry for justice
The Accra Mail in a commentary says, the President’s unequivocal statement that he will not engage in witch-hunting did not give any details of what he really meant.
It said this seemingly open-ended policy position has left a lot of Ghanaians guessing ever since with some despairing in addition.
It said between December 1981 when ex-Flt. Lt. Rawlings did his coup d’etat and January 7, 2001 when he had to relinquish power, so much happened to traumatise the people of Ghana ranging from a three-year curfew imposition to unlawful imprisonment, disappearances, and finally to deaths arising out of executions and other suspected extra judicial means. “Simply put, Ghanaians’ human rights were trampled upon, for one purpose: to let the Rawlings ‘revolution’ survive, states the paper.
It said some have not lived to tell their stories, but others survived ordeals and today are making their voices heard, including three of such victims who spoke to the paper last week.
It states that with the new dispensation in Ghana since the people’s power elections last December, these victims wants their voices heard and also to demand some form of restitution and President Kufuor, in fairness to such people, would have to define clearly his policy of “no witch-hunting”.
It said the plight of the tortured victims makes the call for a form of Truth and Reconciliation Commission ever more pressing, which would not be witch-hunting.
“That would be putting to final rest a chapter in our history that continues to haunt our national conscience even as we have opened a new chapter in our quest for true self-determination,” the Mail said.
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Churcher leads thugs to vandalise property
The Ghanaian Democrat says the NPP Member of Parliament for Cape Coast, Ms Christine Churcher is fast gaining notoriety as an instigator of violence against her political opponents without any provocation.
Under her tactical direction, she personally supervised the vandalisation of two kiosks in Cape Coast on Monday January 15, 2001.
The NPP MP also egged on her thugs to launch an attack on the residence of Madam Akjoa Akyire and Beatrice Williams, all of Cape Coast resulting in massive destruction of property running into millions of cedis.
Narrating her ordeal to the paper, Madam Williams stated that on that fateful day it was Ms Churcher who personally led the mob attack on their residence.
According to her, the elder Sister, Adjoa Akyire who was enjoying the breeze in front of the house was called by the MP who was then in a pick-up filed with her thugs.
The woman reportedly, refused to walk to the car on grounds that the NPP morons were already vandalising a kiosk placed right in front of their house.
The planned attack was carried out with her thugs storming the victims’ house and destroying any valuable property running into millions of cedis.
The attack, according to investigations by the paper, was the result of the successful non-denominational thanksgiving service held at Cape Coast on Saturday, January 13, 2001.
“The well-attended service enraged the MP and her thugs, who subsequently moved to visit mayhem on the people,” the paper said.
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